Mercury FX and IDT Corporation Set to Settle Transactions Using Ripple’s XRP

Ripple announced yesterday on its website that two of its newest partners, Mercury FX and IDT Corporation, “will now use xRapid to settle retail remittances and corporate transactions quickly”. The two will now join MoneyGram and Caullix, who are set to use Ripple’s new xRapid product in settling payment flows to satisfy liquidity for global payments. The xRapid is basically Ripple’s XRP product packaged for payment providers as well as institutional players, who are looking to minimize costs incurred during liquidity processes, while also improving customer experience.

The Partners

The fact that ripple will be adding two new partners to join the Ripple group with MoneygGram and Caullix is a plus for the company, as it will help other onlookers realize the utility of cryptocurrency beyond pure speculation and trading.

In fact, MercuryFX (a leading provider of global currency exchange services) is poised to enable real-time payments with this new partnership, and if a statement by the Company’s CEO ( Alastair Constance) is anything to go by, the partnership between Ripple and MercuryFX is a perfect union that will enable both companies to realize “the best use cases of frictionless transactions, which is international settlement”.

Alastair Constance also mentioned, as quoted on Ripple’s site, that xRapid will allow MercuryFX “to drive down the cost of currency exchange and global settlement, making our customers more competitive and saving them tens of millions of dollars each year.”

The CEO also noted that cryptocurrencies are sure to increase transaction speeds while name-checking XRP as the fastest of the cryptocurrencies.

IDT Corporation also agrees that the partnership will be instrumental in enabling low cost global payments. IDT is a telecommunications provider based in New Jersey. It boasts of being a publicly-traded company that also enables transactions between individuals online. According to Alfredo O’Hagan (IDT’s Senior Vice President of the consumer payment department), the company is “excited to pilot Ripple’s xRapid solution for on-demand liquidity”.

Given that IDT has routinely been using “digital assets to generate liquidity in fiat currencies” the new pilot partnership is expected to enable the settlement of more transactions, and at a lower cost.

Ripple’s Long-term Vision

For Ripple, its new partnership with the two entities is definitely a step in the right direction, as more institutional adoption of XRP is seen by o-lookers. On-demand liquidity solutions are a real sign that mainstream institutions are looking out for signs that cryptocurrencies are to be considered useful in the real world. Basically, Ripple is making progress considering its long-term vision of establishing an Internet of Value (IoV), in which money can move in the same way that information does.